All Saints

Web posted on: Monday, July 20, 1998 5:58:06 PM

From Correspondent Mark Scheerer

LONDON (CNN) -- There's a new Fab Four that's making the Spice Girls look over their shoulders. The all-female pop group All Saints -- named after a local recording studio at All Saints Road -- is climbing European record charts with its self-titled debut release.

But though they're young, beautiful and Britain-based, the members -- Shaznay Lewis, Melanie Blatt, and sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton -- say comparisons to the Spice Girls are inevitable, but not accurate.

"We don't know them personally, so we can't really make an opinion about them," says Natalie. "I mean, the music is not something we would buy, it's not our kind of thing, but we're not saying it's bad. Our music is completely different."

All Saints go "Under the Bridge" Audio clip: 82k MPEG-3 Audio clip: 112k WAV Video clip: 630k QuickTime File format info Please enable JavaScript

'We're very happy'

At this year's Brit Awards, the group beat out their competition -- including the Spice Girls -- for best single and video.

"It was the most important award, because it was actually voted for by the public, so it meant a lot to us and we're very happy," said Appleton.

The group might be appealing to a wide audience because of its eclectic blend of music. The members say they mix hard rock, rap, rhythm and blues, hip-hop and garage music.

No pigeonholing

They also rework the music of other artists, offering new versions of songs by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Labelle.

Blatt says her fellow bandmates make an effort to avoid industry labels.

"Everybody tries to catergorize us and say 'OK, you're funny, you're not, you're this, you're that,'" says Blatt. "We all we can be anything at any time. It just depends on whether ... the sun is shining or not."

Right now, the sun -- and the spotlight -- are shining on All Saints.